


Unconnected V-Day Drabbles/ficlets

by Pookaseraph



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Ableism, All the King's Man, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bullying, Drabble Collection, Dragons, Established Relationship, Ficlet, First Kiss, First Meetings, Gen, M/M, MCIS, Mpreg, Mutually Beneficial Transactions, Pre-Slash, Valentine's Day, Wheelchairs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-31 04:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 4,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/340172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pookaseraph/pseuds/Pookaseraph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unconnected drabbles and ficlets that were prompted on tumblr for Valentine's Day (some don't have a Valentine's Day theme, but some do!). Currently includes drabbles set in Mutually Beneficial Transactions, Mutant Criminal Investigations, All the King's Man, and Nation Building 'verses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. My What Big Wings You Have

**Author's Note:**

> lilgreyeyes asked you:
> 
> (slutty) disney prince Charles, please? And maybe it’ll be from mindboggled outsiders’ POV who can’t believe he’s real & he even has a tall, dark and grumpy dragon of a BF too! ^

Alex was trying to decide if King Brian had actually said fair prince _s_ or something, because he'd totally heard fair princess, he really had. He'd decided, in the end, that the king had probably intentionally stuttered on that point.

The _Prince_ , Charles, was apparently held captive by the evil Prince Erik, but... the peasants around the castle hadn't been particularly put upon. There was an eyrie up in the castle, and supposedly a dragon, but no one was acting all... dragon intimidated. And Charles was in a courtyard... singing. Singing at birds and at flowers and possibly at grass and the sun.

"Are you for real?"

Charles just sighed. "From my father again, I take it?"

A shadow crossed overhead and then the sound of wingbeats. Alex drew his sword as a huge dragon, scales glittering like metal, landed heavy on the stones of the courtyard.

"I'll save you, your majesty!"

The dragon... snorted, bathing Alex in a puff of too-hot air, not hot enough to burn, but he felt slightly cooked.

"Honestly, Erik, don't be ridiculous!" The Prince reached up and rubbed the dragon on the nose. "Be nice, we have guests."

Alex just stared at the pair on confused wonder.


	2. Abuse of Powers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> emphasismine asked:
> 
> Hey, I'm special! I demand Alex/Darwin for Valentine's. YOU OWE ME.

No one said guys couldn't... have feelings, and stuff. Everyone _else_ at the house was doing... things for the holiday. Alex didn't quite get it. He didn't have a particularly keen idea of romance and the holiday, but everyone else seemed so into it. Even _Erik_ seemed into it.

It was probably unwise to leave him to his own devices when it came to deciding on a romantic gesture. Charles probably should have known. Darwin, at least, found it sweet, and dragged Alex off for a run. Charles put in a call to a stonemason to repair the damage Alex had caused with twin plasma bolts; they had etched a rather permanent heart-shape into the side of the Westchester mansion.


	3. Never Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked:
> 
> I've got a prompt for you! Modern AU. Charles and Erik are lonely singles who meet on Valentine's Day while ironically trying to escape the celebrations.

Raven was... sickeningly happy, Charles could feel it, couldn't _not_ feel it. It was lovely and nauseating and slightly lonely-making. That was the distressing thing about these sorts of holiday parties, as much as there were the spoiled sports, like himself, a few months off a bad break up, scattered through the crowd there were quite a few people who were blisteringly happy. It was somewhat impossible to escape.

Charles made a valiant effort, however, grabbed a flute of champagne and a pair of strawberries before ducking into one of the alcoves that was more likely set aside for canoodling than moping. His alcove was occupied, however, thankfully solo, by a man with very nice eyes and a rather handsome jaw he was in the process of clenching.

Of the process of clenching while thinking that Charles had lips meant for kissing... and more X-rated things.

Charles coughed and then flushed.

"What?" The man had a lovely sort of gravely, rumbling voice that Charles found very pleasant.

"Sorry... um... telepath."

The man's eyes widened slightly, and then he flushed. "Well... I stand by my thought. Erik Lehnsherr, metal bender."

Charles just grinned. "Charles Xavier, Avatar: The Last Airbender fan."

Charles offered Erik one of his strawberries and began a lively debate on mutant politics.


	4. A Bit More Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Semi-sequel to Mutually Beneficial Transaction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unforgott3n asked:
> 
> their first Valentine's Day as Real Boyfriends in Mutually Beneficial Transaction :D

Erik had intended to try to plan some big... production or something for their first Valentine's Day together. He knew Charles liked that, big and expensive gestures, that was just sort of how he was. But even though he and Charles had been together for months, it was actually barely their one month anniversary. Obviously they _told_ everyone October, but, at least in his head, Erik counted their anniversary as falling Janurary, their first date was Gullifty's, and their first time was a hotel in Pittsburgh.

It was... weird, a weird sort of dissonance. He'd been in love with Charles for months, though, so maybe it was just like any other relationship where you started as friends, sort of.

Big production or not, he'd gotten a text from Charles around one in the afternoon that said: _I'm so sorry, but work is unavoidable. I will be home late. Forgive me? <3_. Yeah, he'd even added the less-than-three. His boyfriend was a dork. 

_This time_

_:]_

He'd texted Alex just to make certain this wasn't some sort of double fake to hide some ridiculously elaborate plan - Alex confirmed that it wasn't - and then he'd started back on his classes.

Finally, around eight fifteen, Charles texted that he was on his way home, Erik called in for take away Chinese from around the corner, jogged out to pick it up along with a bottle of wine, and had a roaring fire - thank god for gas fireplaces - and a picnic spread laid out in front of the fireplace just in time for Charles to walk through the door and into the den with one of the most pathetic arrangements of flowers Erik had ever seen.

"I bet that was the last bunch in the shop," Erik said, grinning.

Charles shook his head. "The last bunch was even more pathetic than this one. I'm sorry."

Erik just shook his head and patted the floor next to him. Charles stripped out of his shoes, his tie, and his jacket before he collapsed next to Erik and kissed him breathless.

"This is already the best Valentine's I've ever had."

"Oh?" Erik asked, curious now.

"Yes, I get to spend it with you."

Who needed a fancy dinner in the face of a declaration like that?


	5. My Two Mutant Dads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ephers asked:
> 
> MCIS (do i miss this universe)! future timestamp: five years; Charles, Erik, and David; grade school. Thank youuuuu.

Charles looked down at his son's mop of dark brown hair and brushed it back into something resembling order.

"Dad!" David whined back at him, ruffling his hair back into a mess of spikes pointing in every direction. "It's cool."

Someone needed to save him from pre-adolescent posturing.

"I can hear that," David reminded him.

"Then you'll know how completely unnecessary and futile that posturing is," Charles said, even as he realized that attempting to use logic on an eight year old, however telepathic, was automatically doomed to failure.

"Charles, let the kid do his hair however he wants."

David nodded, clearly deciding Erik was the cool dad. Charles could _hear_ his son decide Erik was the cool dad today.

"The perils of telepathic offspring."

Erik shrugged. "You had him." Erik's usual bluntness had been made only blunter by the presence of two telepaths in the house.

"You had three!"

"None of them are telepathic." Erik scooped David up over his shoulder and grabbed the boy's book bag. Charles could hear the edges of Erik's thoughts, directed towards David, informing his son he was well loved. "Come on, we don't want to be late for work."

Charles nodded. One of the benefits of a telepathic son was, he'd learned early on as much as Charles and Erik sometimes found him exasperating, they were also filled with a great deal of love for him, which was something he hoped David would never doubt.


	6. Toepick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't do this one. I will. My prompt: The first time they'd met, Erik had taken a hockey puck to the face not three hours prior and had walked into Charles' dental practice with a sheepish, gap-toothed smile and a handful of his own molars. [in which Erik is a professional hockey player and Charles is the adorbs dentist that he entrusts with his teeth.]

Erik was in somuchpain. He was woozy, mostly because he was in pain, mostly because he'd just taken a hockey puck to the face. The team was out in the suburbs, mostly because their typical rink was being thawed and refrozen for some unknown reason, but none of that mattered to Erik, however, because he was in somuchpain.

The receptionist was nice, she said there was an emergency so they couldn't see him, but _he_ was the emergency and then Darwin was frisking him for his wallet and Alex helped him back into the chair. With Doctor... probably does dentistry to really rich people in Westchester... or... Doctor blue-eyes. So blue... He was fairly certain his declaration of lust came out a bit garbled.

Instead he handed over a jar full of teeth like they were a very precious gift.

"Thank you, my friend," Doctor Blue-Eyes answered. He took them relatively reverently. "I'm Doctor Xavier. Your coach called and informed me you've had oral surgery before?"

Erik nodded.

"Not surprising in your line of work, I suppose," Blue Eyes continued. "We'll start with an x-ray and go from there, hmm?"

Erik didn't remember much after that, just a dazed sense of contentment which no doubt involved some sort of sedation, lots and lots and lots of sedation.

He woke, later - likely many hours later - head lolled slightly to one side and drooling. His head snapped forward and he groaned.

"How are you feeling then, Mr. Lehnsherr?" Blue eyes was over him in a moment. Erik got a look at his _mouth_ , with cherry lips before he tugged a mask back over his face. "A bit stiff in the jaw?"

"That's not the only thing that's stiff..." It came out more than a bit mangled, enough that he doubted Blue eyes, _Xavier_ even knew what he'd said.

He just nodded, gloved hands gently prying Erik's mouth open as the man got up close and personal with Erik's mouth, poking and prodding even though Erik couldn't actually feel it yet. He felt a sense of pressure, but no pain.

"Well, everything seems to be in order. I'd like you to follow up with your usual dentist or oral surgeon in... a few weeks, just to make certain everything stays in order." Xavier slid back, stripped the gloves from his hand and tugged the mask down, giving Erik another view of the man's face. He probably grinned a bit dopily. "I will now administer some advice I know you will ignore: no blows to the jaw for a while, a week at the least, and I recommend quitting smoking as well."

Erik frowned.

"Yes, yes, I know, but it seems a shame to get your teeth all back in place if you're going to waste that smile."

"I'll quit." Anything! His words still were a total garble.

"Good intentions, I'm certain. It would no doubt improve your game."

"Will you marry me?"

Xavier bit his lip, possibly to keep from laughing. "Well, it is New York, but perhaps you might want to come back in twenty-four hours. We advise sedated patients to not make any major life decisions for at least twenty-four hours."

Erik nodded, far more soberly than he was feeling.

Finally Alex and Darwin helped him back out of the office.

"Man, I was talking to that hot receptionist, and Doctor Xavier totally like... fixes cleft palates on kids and things!"

Erik turned around and saw Doctor Xavier leaning casually against the doorframe to the back of the practice, his hair was loose now, not tied back, brown and touchable. He was smiling, almost smirking.

"I'll be back," he mumbled in the man's direction.

"You idiot," Alex shot back. "You're supposed to take it easy, not get more teeth knocked out!" 

Xavier was grinning wildly now.


	7. Sweet Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this part: implied-mpreg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ilykujk asked:
> 
> How about Valentine's Day drabble in the AtKM verse? Like with the babies, cake, chocolates, and cuddles. Or whatever else you feel like!

Charles felt as though he and Erik had little time for each other anymore. He'd finally gotten back from his fourth diplomatic expedition in the south, the situation finally stabilized, and found Erik waiting for him at the docks, looking relatively calm and not at all frazzled. That was good, Charles knew with Wanda and Pietro starting to crawl the palace staff were once again at their wit's end. Their stress became the king's stress, which he didn't need, not with even more difficulties brewing to the south-east.

"I received a communication from the Emperor in Klett-" Erik silenced him by putting a hand gently over his mouth.

"I love you, you are brilliant, but please, Charles, no more politics today?"

He nodded mutely and then pressed a kiss into Erik's palm before it was taken away. A moment later his arm tucked in the crook of Erik's and they meandered slowly back towards the palace. "Did you miss me?"

"You have been gone almost three months! Of course I missed you."

Together they cut through the city, into the palace, and then around into one of the small lounges in their wing of the palace. There was tea, obviously just set out, cookies, and a few small cakes.

"A welcome home display?" Charles asked, tongue teasing against his own lip.

"Always, welcome home, Charles."

They had barely a half-hour to themselves before the children broke in, not content to wait for their fathers to have even a moment to say hello, but Charles didn't mind, instead the two of them gave the next several hours over to wrestling and playing, chasing the children around, reading, playing games, and telling stories.

Charles - already exhausted from the trip - collapsed into the sofa next to Erik when the children were finally escorted away for bath time. The tea was now disgustingly oversteeped and cold.

"I want another one," he announced to Erik.

"Pot of tea?"

"Yes, but... I was thinking of something else entirely..." He shot Erik a look that was anything but coy before he hiked his leg around to straddle Erik, kissing him until he got the message.


	8. Internships and Minions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> madneto asked you:
> 
> Could there maybe be a "Mutually Beneficial Transaction" drabble? :)

The first day of work was always a bit weird. Erik knew this, intellectually. He also knew that somehow first days were even weirder when you were dating the CEO's BFF, or college buddy, or loaner jet buddy... honestly he had no idea how Tony and Charles knew each other outside of them both being rich playboy CEO billionaires. Maybe there was a club.

Classes had just finished up for the spring and Charles had reminded him that, yes, he'd completely lined him up for a job at Stark Industries. Tony would find him something to do where he would be learning and using his skills. Erik. Was. Terrified. This was Tony Stark they were talking about, Tony 'oh sure, I called Tony and he said you can take the jet home for the weekend he's not using it' Stark, Tony 'cover of Forbes/Rolling Stone/All the Other Magazines' Stark.

So after he awkwardly handed over his passport to fill out his I-9 and was approximately five minutes into the sexual harassment video he was interrupted by the man himself striding into the room, taking a look around, and waving at the HR lady. 

"Stop that. I think we know he's more likely to get harassed than do the harassing because... damn."

"Tony! You can't--" The redhead behind him seemed to have mostly given up on the proposition of actually making Tony stop, however.

"Erik, my minion, you're with me." And then he swept out of the room, Erik grabbing his bags and his suit jacket and all but running to catch up. He caught up easily, and then Tony looked him up and down. "So tall! I feel like I need to overcompensate for something. Pepper, buy me a car, a nice one, silver, maybe, or whatever looks good. I want it by the end of the week."

"Yes, Mr. Stark." The redhead, Pepper, was obviously very long-suffering, but she didn't leave, just trailed after the two of them and Erik finally found himself in front of a door.

"Eyes here." Tony pointed. "Hands here." Pointed again. "And say your name after the beep."

Erik did as he was told, waited for the beep. "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr."

Another beep. "Really, Magnus?"

"It was my grandfather's name."

Tony shrugged. "JARVIS, give Erik level two access. Key in a unique six digit code for your passcode, don't use birthdays, especially not Charles', if I guess your passcode I'm docking your pay for the day."

Tony... _hovered_ , looked over Erik's shoulder. Erik tried to shield the pad but Tony continued to hover before Erik finally glowered slightly, and when that didn't work, physically turned the man around so he couldn't look.

"I like you," Tony declared to the wall behind them. Erik punched in a keycode.

It got better - or possibly worse - from there.

"So, how was your day, dear?" Charles asked, voice amused and light, as he pulled something that smelled divine out of the oven that evening when Erik arrived home.

He was fairly certain he'd learned more in 9 hours of practicum than he had in his entire EE101 course. Tony hadn't even seemed unimpressed, especially since Erik caught on quickly. "Um... good, really good. Tony's brilliant."

Erik watched a tiny flick of doubt cross Charles' face, quickly hidden behind a turned back.

"Charles!" Erik said, all fondness and exasperation. He took Charles in a full bodied hug from behind, and then kissed his neck noisily. "Tony is objectively brilliant, you're objectively the love of my life."

The tension in Charles' back eased. "I don't think that's technically objective, Darling."

Erik was objectively going to make Charles screw him into the mattress tonight...


	9. Holiday Building and Other Relationship Negotiations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nation Building 'verse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rozf asked you:
> 
> Nation Building 'verse. I want that first Valentine's Day after the election. :D

"Really, Charles?" Erik arched an eyebrow at the little cake that Charles was calling in to order for Valentine's Day. "It's not even an international holiday."

Charles ignored his skepticism and collapsed back onto the couch in Erik's study, picking up his datapad and starting to look over tomorrow's legislative docket. Next up appeared to be criminal penalties for crimes Charles was generally comfortable calling misdemeanors. "I know you're a proponent of mutant culture, but how do you propose we, as mutants, express our love for one another?"

"You're the one who prefers to leave relationships and their dynamics in the bedroom and not on the gossip pages. I'd think you would be opposed to public displays and proclamations of affection."

"That didn't seem to concern you when we were lip locked after I was nearly assassinated."

"I was under emotional duress," Erik sniffed.

Charles had to fight down the smirk that was threatening to spread across his face. "So, Your Majesty, how is Genosha going to celebrate the beauty of love and harmony? I might have to put it forward in the legislature, declare the fourteenth a holiday or something."

Erik scowled. "You can get me a cake."

"And?"

"No 'and', we'll have a cake, in, we're not going out, we're not making restaurant reservations, we'll have order in chinese food." Erik crossed his arms in front of him, looking particularly sulky.

"Does that mean you won't wear the red cape either?"

Erik looked completely annoyed at him and sulked for at least a half hour before agreeing that, fine, he'd forgo the red cape if Charles would quit pestering him about the holiday. If Hallmark wanted to move to Genosha and sell little red boxes of chocolate and holiday cards they could.

Charles was appropriately conciliatory and drafted up legislation to make the first monday after the beginning of the campaign against the old Genoshan regime as 'Remembrance Day' as a day to celebrate the beginning of the end of mutant oppression and the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of mutants across the world.

Government holidays were fantastic.


	10. A Friendly Ear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minor mentions of High School bullying, illness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked you:
> 
> Cherik High School AU? Maybe where Erik (who is very quiet and shy in school) keeps finding anonymous Valentines in his locker and is all confused and surprised because no one every talks to him, and eventually he finds out that popular rich boy Charles Xavier has a crush on him and then everyone is happy and in love. :))

_You looked sad today, are you alright?_ Erik blinked down at the note, the most recent of dozens he'd gotten over the past weeks. He had looked sad today; his grandmother's health was declining and he knew she might not have much time left.

He pulled out a pen and ripped off half the paper - the part with no note - and just wrote down _No_ , and then closed his locker so the note was barely poking out of it. He grabbed his book bag out of the locker, shoved the books he needed for homework inside, and slowly started to walk out of school. He also pulled out his stupid-pathetic-crush envelop. He knew it was stupid and pathetic because he didn't even know who the notes were from, maybe it was from someone just trying to cheer him up, someone not real, even, or maybe they didn't even really like him that much, he was just a lonely, pathetic, nerdy sort of ear to dump on.

Erik rifled through the envelop and pulled out one at random. _Someone said you're gay. It doesn't matter to me if you are, but I'd think it was brave. I'm not brave enough to tell my parents._ He'd written back that he was. By the next week he never got teased over it again.

Sometimes he thought about writing down something stupid like 'I want to meet you' or 'I want to hug you' because... well because his letter writer was both so kind and so sad, and he really wanted to know he wasn't alone, but if he asked... if he pushed, maybe it would all stop and all come crashing down. Maybe he'd find out that his letter writer wasn't real or didn't really like him or something else and that would be a bit too much to deal with right now.

So he left it be, he just told himself that someone in that stupid school actually cared a little bit about him.

"Hey!" Someone shouted behind him, but he didn't turn around, no one yelled after him. "Erik!"

He stopped, turned around. Charles Xavier was jogging to catch up to him. Charles. Erik sort of wanted to hate him, he was rich, popular, had all these varsity letters on the track team and was captain of the chess club, and the debate team, and It's Ac, and yet somehow was still ridiculously popular and nice and... pretty.

"Yeah?" People didn't jog to catch up to him. Maybe he'd done something horrid to one of Charles' friends and Charles was going to tell him off all polite and Charles-like.

"Um..." Charles looked down at his feet. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"It?" Erik was on the chess team but he didn't think that needed to be talked about, Charles barely talked to him...

Charles tugged at his back pack strap. "Why you were sad today..."

No. Way. "Um...."

"We could go get burgers?"

Erik wasn't certain he remembered how to breathe. "Yes?" He wasted what little air was left in his lungs forcing the single word out, and Charles _beamed_ at him.

"Is it ok? I... I didn't think you'd want to meet me, but... I was worried about you when you said you weren't alright."

 _I was worried about you._ Erik reached out after a moment and grabbed Charles into a hug, the other boy pausing for only a second before he wrapped his arms back around Erik.

"Is it ok?" Charles repeated.

"Yeah." He drew away, feeling a little embarrassed with himself. "Yeah, it's ok. I'm not brave."

Charles just smiled up at him. "Of course you are, my friend."

They went to the mall and had cookies and soda and sat by the water fountain in the middle of the mall and Erik told Charles about his grandmother and Charles nodded and pressed his foot against Erik's. When Erik was done and a cried out, Charles drove him home in his fancy car that he had to Erik's parents' crappy apartment, but Charles acted like he didn't even notice, and then Erik watched as Charles bit his lip to stop himself from smiling so much.

He didn't think about it, just leaned forward and kissed Charles on the cheek. Charles blinked. Erik fled.

"Erik!" Charles yelled at him through the car door. "Erik come back here!"

The desire not to face Charles just that moment warred with wanting to know if maybe Charles...

He slid back into the car. Charles kissed him on the cheek. "See, brave. I told you so."

Maybe he was.


	11. Holiday Cheer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ableism, internalized ableism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked you:  
> Erik and Charles, AU, no powers. They've been together for years, and although Charles is very happy, every year he gets disappointed, because Erik doesn't care at all about valentine's day. He thinks it's just another day,and Charles pretends he agrees. This valentine's day,however everything is different... It's their first since Charles was in that car accident, and lost the use of his legs. Some insecure!Charles, please, and surprising!, cute!, reassuring!Erik. OMG, I BEG YOU.

Charles was not having one of his best days. The elevator nearest his office was out - unannounced of course - and he'd had to go two stations down and catch a cab - he should have taken a cab anyway - and then his coffee shop was out of his favorite tea, and then, AND THEN, he had the misfortune of hearing another round of 'oh it's too bad about Professor Xavier, he used to be so adorable.'

That one smarted.

Yes, it was too bad about Professor Xavier. Too bad he was apparently no longer a worthy object of lust, too bad his hair was thinning just a bit up top even though he wasn't even thirty-five, too bad he couldn't quite ever keep off the little creep of gut-paunch even through exercise and physical therapy, and too damn bad that his boyfriend never had picked up on the fact that he was a romantic and he actually sort of _liked_ Valentine's Day, Hallmark manufactured as it was.

So it also happened to be the first Valentine's Day he really didn't bother with, Erik didn't like the holiday anyway, he never wanted to do something special, and Charles had been more than a bit of a grouch about it since they got into February and that put Erik enough on edge that they had gotten into one of the 'why do you even love me anymore?!' fights that he was never proud of afterwards but always felt quite acutely when he was in the middle of it.

It left Charles uncharacteristically snippy, Erik characteristically snippy, and he felt a bit bad about the fact that he hadn't even left Erik with an 'I love you' that morning. When he got back home - late - and wheeled around to the back of the brownstone where the ramp had been installed, he was expecting Erik to be cranky. Erik wasn't the sort to give mulligans just because it was your birthday or Christmas or Hanukkah.

Instead he smelled red velvet cake... and something that smelled a great deal like shrimp. Erik didn't like shrimp, mostly just because he just didn't, even though he hid it behind pretending he was keeping kosher (yeah right Mr. Bacon Cheeseburger) but Charles loved them.

Erik was juggling four things - getting some sort of rice finished off along with some asparagus and the shrimp and chicken he'd likely made for himself - and he looked adorably frazzled, but he dropped everything when Charles rolled in, scrubbed his hands and slid easily into Charles' lap. He wrapped his arms around Erik's waist almost reflexively and squeezed him tight.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Charles."

Charles found himself growing a bit teary, and then squeezed Erik's ribs a bit too tight. "Thank you." He needed that a great deal.


	12. Heart Bending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avatar: The Last Airbender AU, no spoilers for the series beyond the premise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> atelier-dayz asked you:
> 
> I couldn't resist after reading the "Never Alone" drabble. May I prompt Charles and Erik as benders in the A:TLA verse? :D (Your fics are lovelyyyyyyy <3)

"I thought airbenders were supposed to be _celibate_ ," Erik snapped as he watched Charles stroll back from yet another (failed) attempt to flirt with one of the northern water tribe girls. Erik was getting sick of it, actually, his master was ridiculous.

"Where do you think little airbenders come from, Erik?" Charles was _grinning_ at him. "The monks are, of course, but I think you may have noticed that I am no longer a monk."

Charles was doing a backhanded impression of one, however. Erik was fairly certain he would have noticed if his teacher had managed to actually fall into bed with one of his attempted conquests, and by the evening Charles was always in the small rooms that had been set aside for the Avatar and his airbending master. He appreciated it, though, as a firebender, waterbending was the most challenging for him, the calm serenity required to feel the flow of water was not something that came easy to him. Charles' frenetic energy was something Erik related to easily, but the former monk seemed well acquainted with waterbending serenity, so much so that he practiced forms alongside Erik despite his inability to touch all four elements.

Erik knew he should not have asked Charles to continue to travel with him; he'd spent almost a year with the man, learning the ins and outs of airbending in the Western Air Temple. Charles had said there would always be more to learn, but that Erik was ready to move on to a power far greater than Charles'.

"Come with me," he'd said. "I want you by my side."

Charles, as far as he could tell, had never looked back, even if Erik was never certain why.


	13. Your Move

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anonymous asked you:
> 
> Charles and Erik are two professional chess players who have been playing chess games against each other over Internet in there spare time, but never met in person. And one day the met!

Erik thought the whole thing had started innocuously enough: two relatively young chess prodigies, about the same rank, and it had been just after Erik had placed in a major tournament. He wasn't certain how Charles had gotten his email, but he'd gotten the email, one opening move and a simple _welcome to the circuit_.

It had gone from there, sometimes the played a fast game over the internet, all concentration, no chitchat, but the game that Erik (secretly) thought of as _theirs_ was the one that they played old style, like two old friends separated by hundreds of miles, waiting sometimes days for the next missive to arrive with the post. It always contained the next move, but beyond that...

Erik printed out the emails, sometimes read them several times and always felt as though he should have written more or been more interesting. By their tenth move, Erik had a touch of a crush, and by the twenty-third (he remembered it precisely, some pointed political commentary mixed in with a paragraph or two on pizza) he was smitten. And _then_ , having quite thoroughly fallen for Charles on intellect alone he actually saw a picture of Charles and smitten turned into lust and there may have eventually been a fantasy or two about a game of chess, a fireplace, perhaps some alcohol, and then pieces flying everywhere in a rush to get stripped.

He shook his head to clear it, looked back at the email again. _I'm going to be your way for the tournament. Coffee?_ It was so terse compared to Charles' usual style, not at all like him, but it didn't matter. He answered almost immediately (after freaking out for about seven minutes) with a time and a place.

He hoped he wasn't imagining it, but when he saw Charles standing outside of the coffee shop - lip teased nervously between his teeth, hair windswept and touchable, and eyes bright - he thought maybe he wasn't the only one who had been thinking inappropriate sexy chess thoughts at night.


End file.
